


Office Pet

by androgynousclintbarton



Series: Spock, Leonard and Jim the Sehlat. [3]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Haphephobia, Jim the Sehlat, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 19:12:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9398978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/androgynousclintbarton/pseuds/androgynousclintbarton
Summary: Leonard takes a break from work after a few hours with a very touchy Admiral. Jim decides to join him.





	

  It had been a long day. There hadn’t been a lot of crewmen in the visit him, or a lot of injuries at all in the past few days. In fact, usually Leonard would chalk today up as a good quiet day where he got a lot of work done.

  Unfortunately, that was not how his day went at all. 

  Instead, he had a constant guest in medical: a Starfleet Admiral in the process of conducting an inspection of the ship. And he had decided to spend a few hours in medical. The most annoying part was that the admiral didn't even have a lot of complaints. He was practically worshipping Leonard and Christine’s ability to keep a clean and organized medical area. 

      The problem was that the admiral was handsey. Whenever he wanted to ask a question, he would put a hand on Leonard’s arm or back  to get the Doctor’s attention. No matter what the admiral did, it came with constant physical interactions that Leonard couldn’t scrub away or get mad at. He had to play the good doctor and be nice. He had to ignore the way that his skin crawled at each new touch and answer the admirals questions without hesitation and with a smile.

    By the time the admiral left, Leonard felt like he was going to claw his way out of his own skin. The part of his arm that the admiral kept touching felt like it was on fire and it took at least three scrub downs until reduced the sensation to little more than an annoying tingle. Worse, his back felt as if electricity was sparking along each nerve where the admiral had touched him, like his body was attempting to shock away the feeling of a hand against the middle of his shoulders. 

    So yeah, today was a long and now that he could, Leonard had locked himself in his office and practically begged Christine for just an hour of quiet. An hour to do nothing but work and try to calm his nerves. She seemed more than happy to give him that hour, especially when she noticed the way that his hand was continuously twitching even after he had scrubbed his skin.

         That's where he was now. Sitting quietly in his office with his head in his hands, trying to calm himself down when the door slid open just a little. Usually, he'd be upset. This was definitely not an hour and Christine wouldn't dare let anyone else bother him without asking first. The last time that happened, he had to apologize to the poor ensign he snapped at. This time, however, he figured he could forgive the quick intrusion when he felt a small mass jumping up onto his legs and using the new position to get onto the desk.

       “What, did you get board on the bridge?” he asked, cracking his fingers open just enough so that he could see Jim sitting down in the middle of his desk and looking up at him. “You've been here a whole week and now you know exactly where to go to find everyone you like?”

       Keeping his eyes on the sehlat, Leonard chuckled to himself when he was met with nothing but silence. “No, wait I've got it.” He dropped his hands down to the desk and lowered  his face just enough so that he could bonk his nose against Jim’s. “Spock’s paying more attention to his science than he is to you.”

      At that, Jim lifted his paws up and planted them on Leonard’s left shoulder while starting to lick the side of his face. “Ya, that's it,” he chuckled. “He's good at that, you know. Forgetting that there are other people around who might want his attention.” 

       Reaching up with his left hand, Leonard buried his fingers in the fur on Jim’s back and started to pet him. “Just between us, I wish he would pay more attention to me,” he admitted. “Though, i guess that would involve him actually liking me.” He laughed at himself, forever hopeful for some sort of sign that Spock was interested in him. “He has better options though. He could have anyone he wants, what does he need with a grumpy old man like me, hmm?” 

     Pulling his hand away, Leonard smiled as he watched Jim shake himself off. “Sorry little guy, I'm not feeling like a lot of pets right now,” he whispered, folding his arms on the desk and laying his head down in top of them as his fingers tingled where he had used them to pet Jim. “Too much stimulus today. People are really touchy.”

       As if he understood what Leonard was saying, Jim curled himself up into a ball and laid his head on his paws so that he was looking up at Leonard. 

\--------------------------------------

    Taking a step into Medical, Spock raised an eyebrow as he noticed that Nurse Chapel was standing in front of an Ensign and patching up a burn on his leg. 

    “Nurse Chapel,” he called calmly, waiting for her to turn her attention to him and smile. “You said there was an emergency?”

     “Sort of” The nurse winced, finishing up with the Ensign and sending him on his way back to engineering with a smile. “Sorry Mr. Spock, I just didn't know what else to do.”

     “What seems to be the problem?” he inquired, following her when she started to make her way towards Doctor McCoy’s office.

       “You see, Jim, your pet sehlat, came in about two hours ago. I let him into the office hoping that he would be able to help Doctor McCoy calm down…” Christine explained, stopping in front of the Doctor’s office door with a sigh.

     “Has today been particularly stressful for the doctor?” asked Spock, a sense of worry flashing through him as he thought about the Admiral's visit and all of the possible ways it could have upset Leonard. 

    “It wasn’t stressful, it just involved a lot of...touching.” He raised an eyebrow at the comment, prompting her to explain. “As I'm sure you noticed yourself, the admiral is very...hands on with the crew. For most people that’s fine but….”

     “Doctor McCoy’s haphephobia was exasperated due to the Admiral’s continuous desire to engage in physical contact,” surmised Spock with a nod. “I assume he locked himself away in his office after the Admiral left?”

     “He did.” Christine confirmed. “He asked me to give him an hour, but we weren't busy so I gave him two. I tried to go check on him 20 minutes ago but…” She sighed, turning towards the door and opening it slowly so that Spock could hear the low growl that Jim emitted. “I can't get within two feet of him.” 

     Drawing in a deep breath, Spock poked his head into the room and glanced over at Leonard’s desk. From where he was standing he could see that the doctor had laid down on the couch in his office for a nap, and Jim had situated himself at Leonard’s side and only stopped growling when he spotted Spock. If he weren’t aware this was a situation constituted an annoyance for Nurse Chapel, he would consider it to be cute. Leonard had one arm thrown over his eyes to block out the light and his mouth hung open, allowing him to draw in breath easily as he slept. 

        “You are not supposed to wonder around the ship,” stated Spock, slipping into the room carefully and letting Christine close the door behind him. “Medical and the Bridge are three floors apart, how were you able to get here?” His inquiry was left unanswered,as the Shelat before him was unable to respond verbally, though he knew the animal understood his statement. They were exceedingly intelligent creatures after all. “It is time to go.” With that said, Spock took a step forward only to recoil as Jim got up onto his feet and growled at him. “Jim, your behaviour is illogical,” he accused, sighing when the Shelat dropped its chest to the ground as if he was preparing to attack Spock. 

           This was a new reaction for Spock. He had seen Jim react this way to other crewmembers, and especially to Scotty (who he seemed to have a passionate hatred off), but never to himself or Leonard.

      Yet here he stood, five feet away from the Shelat and preparing himself for the possibility that Jim may decide to attack him. A curious reaction.

     “Do you think you’re protecting Leonard?” he asked calmly, glancing over at the Doctor as he continued to sleep on the couch. It was only when he noticed earphones in Leonard’s ear that he realized why exactly the other man hadn't woken up yet. “Jim, I have no intention of harming Leonard. I simply need to wake him up so he may return to work.” 

      For a second, Jim seemed to calm down.  He settled himself onto his back legs and looked up at Spock, waiting for the next move.

    Debating his options, Spock took a slow step forward and kept his eyes on Jim, making sure that he didn't return to his previous attack position before he took his next step. He reached Leonard within a few short strides, thankfully without injury to himself or Jim. However, when he reached out to touch Leonard’s shoulder in order to shake him awake, he found himself quickly retracting his hand in order to avoid being bitten by the sehlat. 

     “Jim this is quite illogical,” he stated with annoyance, unable to figure out what exactly was wrong with the Shelat. “There is no reason for this…” He stopped mid sentence and glanced over at Leonard. “Are you….” Giving his head a shake he decided to test his theory out and started to reach out towards Leonard again, pulling his hand back when Jim jumped up in an attempt to bite him. “I see.” Frowning, Spock closed his eyes and tried to think of a way past this predicament. It seemed to him that Jim was protecting Leonard, not from danger but from over stimulation. Sehlats were quiet in tune with their owners needs, and it seemed Jim considered Leonard just as much his owner as he did Spock.

     Spock wasn't quite sure how he felt about sharing his pet sehlat’s affections, but part of him was happy that there was someone to protect Leonard from unnecessary stimulation.

     The only way he could think of to resolve this situation was unlikely to end well for Leonard, but if it was the best way to keep Jim from biting off his hand then it was the only way to approach the situation. 

    With that decided, Spock made his way over to the computer on Leonard's desk and opened it, thankful that Leonard did not have a password. The first thing that popped up on the screen was Leonard’s music playlist. Looking through the song choices, Spock found the loudest song that he could and set it as the next song on Leonard’s list. Now all he had to do was wait.

     Thankfully, it wasn't a long wait. Within a few minutes the song had changed and Spock watched as Leonard jumped off of the couch in a panic and ripped his headphones out of his ears.

    “Dear God man,” he protested, glaring up at Spock when he noticed the other man. “Are you trying to kill me in my sleep?”

      “On the contrary, Doctor,” replied Spock calmly, watching as Leonard crawled to his feet and pet Jim behind the ear on his way up. “It seems Jim was under the impression that he needed to protect you. He was more than ready to bite me whenever I attempted to wake you. Because of this, I determined the best way to wake you was to change the song on your music list.You would awaken and I would be able to avoid injury to myself or Jim.”

   “Mmm.” Bringing his hands up to his face, Leonard rubbed his eyes and allowed himself a moment to stretch out his arms. “A.k.a., I had a sehlat guard and he wouldn't let you bug me?”

    Thinking about it, Spock raised an eyebrow. “That is another way to explain it,” he agreed, watching as Jim made his way to his side now that Leonard was awake. “I believe you have a shift to finish doctor.”

    “You're such a charmer, Spock,” stated Leonard with a wink, chuckling when Spock looked away from him. “Okay, I'll get back to work.” He smiled, making his way towards the door as Spock stood there in silence.

   “Doctor....Leonard.” Spock corrected himself, turning to face the other man as Leonard stopped at the door to glance back at him. “If you would like to join me after your shift, I was going to enjoy some tea before my weekly game of chess with the captain.”

   “Are you asking me to spend personal time with you, Spock?” asked Leonard with a smirk.

    “I believe I am, Leonard.” Keeping his eyes trained on the doctor, Spock watched as he went through a mental itinerary of his day and smiled. 

   “I’ll meet you in the mess hall.” promised Leonard, leaving Spock with a playful wave of his hand and a soft smile. 


End file.
